


You're in my Heart

by ari_es



Series: Kings and Cohorts [2]
Category: Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, M/M, contains some spoilers for the original story sorry!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-25 01:56:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13824033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ari_es/pseuds/ari_es
Summary: Jaehwan thinks up a plan to woo Minhyun with the help of his music, but it doesn't turn out exactly as he'd hoped. But even with all their stumbling and bumbling they come to realize that plans are just plans, and sometimes the best thing is how you wiggle and grow into something even better.





	You're in my Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Just a silly little thing I wrote not too long after I finished posting the main story. You don't have to read the original story to read this one, though it contains some spoilers I guess - I don't feel it's too bad since the original story was pretty lighthearted and wasn't plot intensive, but just a warning that I probably should have put up earlier, my bad...
> 
> Some information that might help: Jaehwan is basically able to make music that influences people’s moods or inclinations, like make himself appear sexier for example, or the atmosphere more romantic. Minhyun is a King because that’s the Unit position he is in their cohort. A cohort is a group of Units - people with special abilities based on the kind of Unit they are - that have formed a bond with each other, and whose goal traditionally speaking is to seek out a King and service them to their goal.
> 
> Also I didn’t mean to, but some of the lines at the end ended up being kind of sentimental and applicable to Wanna One as a band in real life.

Now, Jaehwan takes himself very seriously; he especially takes his music very seriously. So when he had this brilliant idea - he blames Daniel for showing him too many American music videos - he really wondered if he wasn’t going against his principles. But anything for Minhyun, for their King, couldn’t be going against his principles right? Minhyun _was_ his principle.

After the whole shebang with saving the campus from demon summoning and making it onto the front page of the newspaper - him! Kim Jaehwan, albeit anonymously, on the paper! - they all needed a decidedly long break from cohort duties to settle back into real life for a while. He enjoyed the aimless days hanging around, going for drinks - alcoholic or not - around town, and meshing with their new friends. But what he enjoyed the most was having Minhyun’s undivided attention again. The man was once more going back to his regime of converting Jaehwan into an excellent young man, and if for no one else, Jaehwan would do it for Minhyun.

But unfortunately their idleness only lasted for a while. Minhyun and Sungwoon had to resume their Kingly duties, amped up from before since they now had two heads and two times the manpower to do it. Even Jaehwan had been roped into it - by Sungwoon no less - to keep places like study rooms and cafes calming during exam season, and, unbeknownst to Minhyun, head some of the most lit parties on campus. If there was one thing good about Sungwoon, it was the man’s wide reach of interests and his willingness to, well, have fun.

Not that Minhyun was a bum. He was becoming more and more open under the other King’s influence, and also from having suddenly grown his friend group - and dongsaeng collection - to twice its size. But this of course only meant Jaehwan got even less of that attention, and Jaehwan couldn’t have that. Especially not when Minhyun was going to be graduating at the end of this year.

While his little plan wasn’t exactly going to put him in Minhyun’s good books for making progress on his excellence conversion, he figured the man would forgive him a little if it was a good time or at least a good laugh. Jaehwan admitted he wasn’t exactly the most charming man, but with a little _music_ and a little prompting, maybe he could be as charming as Daniel on the dance floor. Which was why he had stolen Daniel’s Top 20 Hot Tracks and added his own little touches to it, hoping to let Minhyun see him in a new light and also wind down after a week of college and cohort work.

He had gotten himself a proper office space - courtesy of complaining about faulty lights, and a “pest problem” that had destroyed all his assignments about a month ago - which was much bigger and could hold a table and some candles. He’d cleaned up the mess that had piled in the corner for weeks now, and decorated the table with a simple white cloth and one vase of flowers. He had spread some take out on the table - sue him, he couldn’t cook - and tried to lay the cutlery as classily as possible. But hopefully, if all went well, the two of them would be too busy to eat the food.

The thought had Jaehwan breaking out into inappropriate giggles. He wasn’t trying to take advantage of Minhyun, no way, the music would only make _himself_ look attractive, not Minhyun more attracted _to_ him - although of course, that was his end goal - but that didn’t mean he couldn’t fantasize a little. Maybe Minhyun would finally look at him a little more than the usual “what am I going to do with you” or the occasionally “that was actually pretty cool” expressions he got. Maybe he’d look at him the way Jaehwan once saw him look at a stranger at the club.

“What’s all this?”

The familiar voice interrupted Jaehwan out of his reverie. It was the man himself, dressed in a long beige coat with a black turtleneck and slacks, and what looked like bags of food in his hands _again_ \- when will he stop bringing stuff when he comes over?

“It’s a candlelit dinner,” Jaehwan wiggled his eyebrows.

“It’s only 3pm,” Minhyun said, setting down his containers rather carefully at the table, eyeing the greasy chinese take out.

“I have an assignment to do tonight,” Jaehwan made a face, “aren’t you happy I thought ahead?”

“Very happy,” Minhyun indulged him, patting him on the cheek.

If Jaehwan perked up a little too happily at that, he wasn’t about to admit it.

“Forget this though,” Minhyun gestured a little fussily at the takeout on the table, “I cooked something for once, so we should eat that instead.”

“Ooh, the King’s own cooking!”

“Stop using my title against me,” Minhyun grumbled, moving the chinese food aside and taking out his own containers.

But this was getting too domestic too fast, so Jaehwan quickly turned on the speaker and put on the first track on his phone.

A moody pop song filtered through the room, the beats thrumming in a way that almost felt alive. Minhyun’s head lifted up with a snap, and he looked rather like a deer in headlights as he stared a little slack-jawed at Jaehwan, who had started to sway slowly to the music. Jaehwan could feel his own cheeks heating up despite himself, despite the fact that _he_ was supposed to do the charming. Maybe it was the way Minhyun looked out of his depth, the way he seemed flustered despite always being so put together. That maybe _Jaehwan_ was making him feel that way, and the thought made his mouth curl into a little smile.

“Like the soundtrack hyung?” Jaehwan asked, swaying his way over to the table.

“It’s a bit...out of place isn’t it?” Minhyun swallowed; he gestured vaguely to the table and the room as if to say “this is a pristine and pure place”.

Jaehwan resisted a sigh; _no this is now the most classy nightclub in all of Seoul_ , he thought to himself, _and we are the main characters in this next dance._

“It’s not if you let yourself get into it,” Jaehwan said, throwing in a shimmy to keep the mood just light enough. He saw Minhyun laugh a little nervously, but the tension seemed to be gone from his brows. “Come on hyung-”

Jaehwan took the stiff man’s hands and went in slow circles around the limited space in the office. They may just be two college students, and there might be nothing but a grimy wall and a dumpster outside the windows, but at least in here, with Jaehwan’s songs, they could be somewhere else and someone else. He let himself indulge in the mood a little, eyes half-closed and a pleased hum coming out of his mouth, but noticed that Minhyun wasn't doing the same. He kept looking elsewhere, determinedly avoiding Jaehwan's eyes with his ears bright red, and his hands twitching in Jaehwan's hold every once in a while.

Frowning and thinking this wasn't working, Jaehwan sneaked one of his hands into his pocket and played the next song. A peppier jazz number filled the room. Jaehwan let go of Minhyun’s hand and tried to do some of the flashy dance moves he saw on TV, nearly dislocating his knee on the long desk behind him. That got Minhyun laughing at least, and he finally took a look at Jaehwan, but it wasn't the kind of look the latter wanted. It was an embarrassed look, one that seemed to say "I'm embarrassed because of you right now," and the thought plummeted Jaehwan's stomach all the way to the bottom. 

That wasn't the way things were supposed to go. Maybe Jaehwan had thought too much about the mood and ambiance and not enough about the substance - about _himself_ . He didn’t know what he was doing after all, and more importantly he didn’t know how Minhyun felt. Maybe he never saw Jaehwan like that, attractive and cool and handsome like Seongwoo or Daniel. Maybe he’d only ever seen Jaehwan as a dork, someone he had to tutor and guide to _become_ as excellent as Seongwoo or Daniel.

He was about to shut off the music altogether when Minhyun laughed again, this time more naturally, and took him by his sleeve.

“Just sit down,” he said, cheeks still flushing a bit. He dragged Jaehwan to the table until they both collapsed into one of the seats. “Stop trying so hard,” he said, finishing unloading his food, which must have gone cold by now, as if nothing had happened, “just be yourself.”

 _But I want to be better than myself_ , Jaehwan thought stubbornly, _because just “myself” isn’t good enough_ . So he did the thing he really thought he wouldn’t do tonight - you see, he had gone through an entire scenario: he would start with the charming first, and once they settled into seeing each other in a new light, he would sustain it with a little excitement and anticipation, and then he would go into the fluffy domestic phase. That meant romance, heart fluttering feelings, and the kind of thing he might see Seongwoo and Daniel do on a bad day without even realizing it. All of this was encompassed in the kind of _song_ he was putting on now, despite having no intention of doing it until at least the third - meeting, occurrence, whatever this was now.

The effect was more immediate than Jaehwan thought possible. As the sweet ballad filled the room - Jaehwan’s own voice doing soft vocals - Minhyun sat up straight in his chair. A visible blush begun to spread onto his cheeks, and he seemed mortified but unable to avert his eyes from Jaehwan.

 _My god_ , Jaehwan realized with dawning horror, _Minhyun is a romance guy!_ He should have known really - the kind of guy that cried at the end of every remotely sad romantic film; the kind that sung “Marry Me” at the karaoke every time; the kind of guy that smiled so happily when Jaehwan got him some flowers on their cohort forming day as a joke. _But sexy is my thing!_ Jaehwan wailed internally.

“What’s with you today,” Minhyun mumbled, finally able to tear his eyes away in favor of meticulously setting up the table even though there really wasn’t much to set up anymore, “actually, what’s with _me_ today?”

“Minhyun-hyung,” Jaehwan said very seriously, subtly turning up the music a little louder. “What do you see in me right now?”

“25 years old, nice slicked back hair, really polite, pulls out the chair for me to sit down, never forgets birthdays and definitely doesn’t make me a collage of themselves as a present, and always sends me a goodnight message before bed,” Minhyun rattled all of this out in one breath, face getting redder and redder, whether from asphyxiation or embarrassment.

Now it was Jaehwan’s turn to gulp, and to sweat, and to look out of his element. Because that wasn’t him at all; that was maybe Seongwoo a few years down the road, or Minhyun himself when he had a nice girlfriend or boyfriend to take care of. But it wasn’t Jaehwan, and it would never be Jaehwan.

“That’s-”

“This is so embarrassing,” Minhyun’s muffled wail as he covered his face with his hands interrupted the start of Jaehwan’s self-deprecation. “I can’t believe you made me say that.”

“I didn’t make you say anything hyung,” Jaehwan said with a sad little tug at his mouth.

“The music-” he waved his hands a little in the air, “the atmosphere-”

Jaehwan sighed and turned the music off. Any lingering traces of magic in the air vanished, and silence fell so totally and suddenly that it sounded deafening to Jaehwan’s ears. Even Minhyun seemed to realize himself, and the sober mood that was now settling over his younger companion.

“I wasn’t trying to get anything out of you,” Jaehwan said, “I just wanted you to have a good time, maybe dance with me a little, maybe tell me I looked good - I guess I didn’t really dress up though -” he looked down at his drabby long-sleeve shirt and jeans, “but I can’t-I can’t give you any of that stuff. Sorry, hyung.”

Minhyun took in his companion's downcast eyes, the disappointment in the corner of his mouth. He smiled, taking a deep breath and willed himself to admit something so embarrassing for the second time that evening.

“You don’t have to silly,” he said, “it’s not what I want from you it’s just-” he beat down his blush with another deep breath, “it’s just what I’ve thought about - of you, like, like an ideal version, the best scenario. Like what you might have thought of when you set all this up today and put on that playlist; because you know that’s not you, not really, not 100%, and I know that my version - my fantasy if you will - isn’t you either. But it could be you you know?” he gesticulated with his hands a little, “That’s why I was always going on about wanting to make you a better guy; you could be like that, stylish, put together, admirable. For your own growth and for whoever you will be with in the future. But it doesn’t _have_ to be that way, it’s just my hope for you, my wish for you.”

“So-what, what does that mean?” Jaehwan asked, not understanding Minhyun and his grandiose plans.

“It means I’ve thought of you,” Minhyun said with an exasperated but fond roll of his eyes, “it means I like thinking of you that way. That I hope _I_ will be the one who gets to see whoever you turn out to be in the future, and that maybe I can help you achieve it just a little along the way.”

Jaehwan couldn’t help the blush that lit his own cheeks. It still sounded a little like Minhyun expected him to be way better than he was now, but at least it seemed like he was willing to put the final version up in the air. That he just wanted Jaehwan to be the best he could be - which is pretty fair for a friend to think - except he also wanted Jaehwan to be the best for Minhyun himself. And that, that Jaehwan could get behind.

“Should I start sending you a message every night?” he sniggered, “I already don’t forget your birthday, but I’ll work on the presents - how about a collage of _you_ instead? I’m very polite to elders and people I want to get something from, but I’ll try to extend that to everyone; what else-”

“Enough enough,” Minhyun laughed, “don’t change so much over night, I won’t know who you are anymore!”

“So you _do_ like what you see right now!” Jaehwan leaned forward into the desk, giggling unabashedly.

“Well of course, all that stuff is based on what you already have!”

Jaehwan thought he might combust if he heard something like that from Minhyun again, so he panicked and turned on a random song in his playlist. Loud bass boomed through the room, making Minhyun duck his head and let out a loud laugh, the tips of his ears turning red.

“Stop! Can’t I just get some peace of mind?”

“Sorry sorry, wait, let me put on a regular song-” he switched out of his playlist and into his own music library. Without thinking he put on the song he had most recently listened to. It was the special song he had written for his cohort friends, to commemorate their friendship and to promise that they would always be together even if they were far apart and went their separate ways.

“I really liked this one,” Minhyun said, smiling, a natural blush still lingering on his cheeks, “if they put it into the karaoke machine I’d sing it every time.”

“I’d better make it big then if I want to hear you sing it,” Jaehwan joked.

“You don’t have to do anything,” Minhyun said again, looking exasperated, “you just have to ask.”

So he sang for Jaehwan, and the words sounded sweeter but also more longing in his voice. Jaehwan hoped that whatever happened, whoever and wherever they were at 25 and 26, they would always be friends and always have each other.

 

_Let’s hold hands just like now_

_Let’s stay together like the word, forever_

_You and I, with hearts that won’t change_

_I promise_

_To love you_


End file.
